1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for quickly and easily estimating the required floor covering for a particular sized room and, more particularly, to an estimating device that determines the extra length of floor covering required to cover the fill area for a specified room and a specified floor covering width.
2. Description of the Related Art
All commercial and residential construction typically includes one or more rooms whose floor is covered by a floor covering that is manufactured in rolls of predetermined width. Typical floor covering materials include carpet, linoleum, etc. Carpeting, for example, is commonly manufactured in widths of 12 feet, 13 feet 6 inches, and 15 feet.
Throughout the construction process, there is a repeated need to estimate the amount of floor covering needed to cover a particular room. The contractor, wholesaler, and floor covering salespeople can all have a need to estimate the quantity of floor covering needed to cover a particular room.
The floor covering estimating process is susceptible to many sources of errors or inefficiencies. One source of error occurs because most rooms, even rectangular rooms have at least one room dimension that does not coincide with the manufactured width for a particular floor covering, resulting in the major portion of the room being covered by a single piece of the floor covering having a length equal to the room dimension and a width equal to the manufactured width (the full width area or full run portion) and the remainder of the room (the fill area generally having a width less than the floor covering manufactured width) being filled by sections of the floor covering cut to a width less than the floor covering manufactured width. Depending on the shape of the room, it can have multiple fill areas.
The length of floor covering needed to cover the full width area is simple to calculate. The fill area is more difficult to calculate because the floor covering manufactured width typically does not coincide with the fill area width and it is desirable to minimize the total area of floor covering purchased to cover the full width area and the fill area, requiring the estimator to determine which fractions of the manufactured width will most efficiently cover the fill area while minimizing the additional length of the floor covering that must be purchased. The calculation of the extra length needed to cover the fill area is exacerbated in that the fill area for most rooms will vary depending on which dimension or direction the full width run is oriented. For example, in a rectangular room, the room has a major dimension and a minor dimension. Depending on the length of the major and minor room dimension and the floor covering manufactured width, making the full width run parallel to one of the major and minor dimensions will result in a lower total area of floor covering than if the full width run is parallel to the other dimension. To determine which dimension the full width run should align with to minimize the total floor covering area required, the estimator must make multiple estimations of the total area of floor covering required by orienting the full width floor covering run along both of the dimensions and then calculating the corresponding fill to determine the floor covering orientation that results in the minimum area of floor covering. The need to calculate multiple estimates on a single room increases the likelihood that an error might be made by the estimator.
The potential source for error in estimating the appropriate amount of floor covering is further exacerbated in that many types of floor covering are sold in square yards and most building plans are sized in square feet. Although the mathematical conversion from square yards to square feet or visa versa is well known and relatively common, in practice, the actual calculation is the source of many errors. The errors in the area calculation is compounded by not all blueprints being drawn to the same scale, which can lead to an incorrect calculation for the total area of the room.
There is a need in the floor covering industry to have a simple and easy to use device for quickly calculating the minimum amount of floor covering required for a particular room while accounting for the particular scale of a drawing, the particular width of the floor covering, and the particular dimension in which the floor covering is sold.
The invention relates to a device for estimating the length of the floor covering needed from a roll of floor covering having a predetermined width to cover a room, including any fill area based on a scale diagram of the room showing walls bounding the room. The device comprises a generally planar body having an upper surface and opposing lower surface for contacting the diagram. A first positioning guide is provided on the body for aligning the body on the diagram about a first direction. A second positioning guide is provided on the body for aligning the body on the diagram about a second direction. Floor covering width and length indicia are provided on the body along the first and second axes, respectively. Fill width indicia is provided on the body and corresponds to the first direction. A data matrix comprising multiple cells is defined by the intersection of the fill width indicia and the floor covering length indicia. At least some of the cells contain a fill length data indicia who""s value is the length of the floor covering needed for a fill area corresponding to the intersecting fill width indicium and floor covering length indicium itself.
Preferably, at least one of the first and second positioning guides is an edge surface of the body. Alternatively or in combination, at least one of the first and second positioning guides is a line provided on the body. Yet another alternative or combination includes at least one of the first and second positioning guides being a slot formed in the body. While the range of values for the indicia can be any desired, is preferred that the width indicia at least include a value corresponding to the width of the floor covering whose length is being estimated.
The device can further comprises a second data matrix having multiple cells. Each of the cells corresponds to a floor covering length indicia and contains an area data value representing the area covered by a piece of floor covering of the predetermined width and the corresponding floor covering length indicia. The floor covering predetermined width is preferably selected from one of 12 feet, 13 feet 6 inches, and 15 feet. The floor covering width and length indicia are also of a predetermined scale. Is preferred that this predetermined scale be equal to the scale of the diagram. Suitable scales include one-eighth inch equals one foot, one-quarter inch equals one foot, and three-sixteenths inch equals one foot.
In one aspect, the floor covering width indicia can define the fill width indicia, negating the need to have separate indicia for both values. The floor covering width and length indicia can also form the corresponding first and second positioning guides.
The body can comprise first and second spaced sides and first and second spaced ends connecting the spaced sides to form a generally rectangular body. The body preferably has a width equal to the length of the sides and the body width is scaled relative to the predetermined width of the floor covering. The scale of the body width is equal to the scale of the diagram for which the floor covering is being estimated. Suitable scales include the one-eighth inch equals one foot, one-fourth inch equals one foot, and three-sixteenths inch equals one foot. Preferably, the floor covering predetermined width is one of 12 feet, 13 feet 6 inches, and 15 feet.
When the body takes a generally rectangular shape, it is preferred that the first end forms the first positioning guide and the first side formed the second positioning guide. In this configuration, it is also preferred that the floor covering width indicia is adjacent to and extends along the first end and the floor covering length indicia is adjacent to an extends along the first side. The fill width indicia can be defined by the floor covering width indicia or can parallel the floor covering width indicia as desired.